Obituary 75

Obituary: Professor Erik Kisling

Professor Erik Kisling with his wife Inge.

It was with sorrow that we recorded the death of Professor Erik Kisling in the last issue of the Journal. Professor Kisling was a well-known and much respected member of the dental profession. He was a founder member of the international forum that formed the International Association of Dentistry for Children (later to become the IAPD). He was the Chairman of the organizing committee for the second International Congress when it was held in Copen- hagen and was elected an Honorary Member of the IAPD in 1975. His contribution to paediatric dentistry both in his home country and internation- ally will ensure that he is always remembered. He was a kind and generous man who will be greatly missed by his many friends as well as by his wife Inge and children Anne-Sofie, Karen-Andrea, Camilla and Jens- August.

In 1965 Erik Kisling was appointed at the age of 49 to be the first Danish Professor of Paediatric Dentistry at The Royal Dental College in Copen- hagen. He was thus involved in developing one of the greatest successes of the Danish National Health

Scheme. He was in charge of this discipline for 17 years, and retired from the Royal Dental College in 1982 after 36 years’ service.

His principal interest was in the clinical side of the work, and it is thanks to him that the psychological aspect of the treatment of children has been accorded a central place in the training of dentists. He was the research supervisor for Birthe Rud’s Ph.D. thesis on children’s acceptance of dental treatment, and their acceptance scale is to this day the one most used in paedodontics. His clinical work was greatly influenced by the fact that he was a qualified specialist in orthodontics, and his collaboration with colleagues in that specialty resulted in a series of clinical publications on tooth migrations and occlusal relationships after prema- ture loss of primary teeth. He was one of that generation of dentists which was first to represent Danish child oral health-care abroad.

The Royal Dental College was not always an easy workplace for him, and it was evident that he ob- tained his greatest professional satisfaction through his international organizational work, in which he was deeply involved. He was for a period Vice Dean of the Royal Dental College, President of the International Association of Paediatric Dentistry, Chairman of the Nordisk Pzdodontisk Forening (Scandinavian Paedodontic Society), and honorary member of several foreign paedodontic associations and groups.

Erik Kisling was a distinguished and highly cultured person, and a great idealist in his own quiet way. His style was paternal and, for those of us who were privileged to know him well, often full of irony and humour.

JESPER H0FFDING ERIK FRIIS-HASCHE

J E ~ E DAUGAARD-JENSEN

0 1996 IAPD and BSPD, International Journal of Paediatric Dentistry 6: 11-11